tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-296623792012-04-15T17:30:29.580-07:00honglien123http://www.blogger.com/profile/04664865503830892153noreply@blogger.comBlogger253125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29662379.post-83911810131072856792011-07-15T16:12:00.001-07:002011-07-15T16:12:45.561-07:00

To Wordpress: thelotuslife.wordpress.com Longtime readers can email me if you would like a password to the protected posts.

honglien123http://www.blogger.com/profile/04664865503830892153noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29662379.post-33184411988684415382010-10-16T23:56:00.000-07:002010-10-17T00:03:27.229-07:00

We were lying on my bed, my little guy and I.  His hair was still damp from his bath and smelling like kids' shampoo.  Strawberry scent is unisex when you're five. I am tired.  I've had a long day.  Getting up to work at 6am on a Saturday for a shift that lasts twelve hours or more is no fun.  He and Evie had been playing restaurant a little earlier.  He'd wanted chocolate but she'd "elimimated"

honglien123http://www.blogger.com/profile/04664865503830892153noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29662379.post-14331868427917100092010-09-23T13:33:00.000-07:002010-09-23T16:42:18.843-07:00

I think my absence from this site can in some ways be attributed to my Facebook account.  Over the last few years as my poor blog's been collecting dust, I've been posting almost daily statuses and pictures there.  My friends, siblings, cousins, even in-laws are able to come and see what Evie and JT are up to and it just makes it so much easier to interact.  I can post one thing and everyone in

honglien123http://www.blogger.com/profile/04664865503830892153noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29662379.post-79394097748124448872010-08-31T14:09:00.000-07:002010-08-31T14:24:53.758-07:00

Somehow I am on my three hundredth blog post. Not all of them have been published on this blog mind you or completely finished for that matter. It is just that there are 300 entries when I click "edit posts". It's incredible that someone so self conscious and relatively innocuous could have had so much to say. I've been reading a few of my old posts now and then, wondering when I will get

honglien123http://www.blogger.com/profile/04664865503830892153noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29662379.post-35605637076145580832010-03-25T02:01:00.000-07:002010-03-25T04:51:22.662-07:00

The ice in my glass of water has melted. There's nothing floating in there. What was solid is gone; dissipated into the ether. I'm trying to search for a proper metaphor to explain what's happened to my life over the last few months but I can't think of anything but the melted ice. Once it was there and then it melted away. True, it's just become a part of something bigger; but then it's

honglien123http://www.blogger.com/profile/04664865503830892153noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29662379.post-27838483816593396042009-10-28T12:58:00.000-07:002009-10-28T13:16:46.671-07:00

JT (as we were driving away from our house and on his way to preschool): "Mommy, do birds poop everywhere? Even on the roof?" Lien: "Yup, birds can poop anywhere, even the roof." JT: "But why do birds poop mommy?" Lien (Oh, he just HAD to ask why): "Why do you poop? Birds poop for the same reason every animal poops..." JT: "Animals?" Lien: "Do you know the reason why all animals poop? It's

honglien123http://www.blogger.com/profile/04664865503830892153noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29662379.post-14407922719117764982009-06-23T18:01:00.000-07:002009-06-23T18:32:16.488-07:00

This morning I dropped off three of my cousins at our local BART station in order for them to visit my sister via the next San Francisco bound train. My cousins, aged 15, 13, and 11 had never taken BART on their own and were decidedly not city kids. Despite the trip being fairly simple with the kids only needing to remember to take the San Francisco bound train and get off at the 24th Street

honglien123http://www.blogger.com/profile/04664865503830892153noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29662379.post-49875673788153833662009-06-05T00:11:00.000-07:002009-06-05T00:38:34.546-07:00

What a difference...what a difference...oh, what a difference a year makes. It has been almost a year my friends. Indeed, my last post was last August. So much has changed. Did I tell you that JT is four years old now? And Evie is leaving the second grade? How about that I'm about to complete my bachelors degree (if I don't fuck up) next week? I bought a [town]house! I got into a local

honglien123http://www.blogger.com/profile/04664865503830892153noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29662379.post-57693487210963512602008-08-31T10:21:00.000-07:002008-09-01T13:03:45.724-07:00

Evie's pet hermit crab Pearlie died today. She was attacked and killed by a stream of vicious ants that have been plagueing the house since Spring. (I seriously think our house was built on an ant hill and my dad is too do-it-yourselfer to allow anyone to call an exterminator.) Anyhoo...Evie was inconsolable despite the fact that J had warned that the hermit crab was doomed when it was brought

honglien123http://www.blogger.com/profile/04664865503830892153noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29662379.post-42096067617445054502008-08-25T23:49:00.000-07:002008-08-25T23:59:54.333-07:00

We've just returned from a little over half a week on Oahu. We missed the closing ceremonies of the Olympics, but why catch up on that when you can watch "Japanese Olympics". God I love Japanese TV shows. Why can't we have stuff like this here? The Japanese Olympics - Watch more free videos

honglien123http://www.blogger.com/profile/04664865503830892153noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29662379.post-35228635333430707982008-08-05T19:39:00.000-07:002008-08-06T09:20:13.297-07:00

We're currently eating dinner at a local restaurant. Evie and I just had this conversation which I had to record, you know, because it's official now. Evie: Mommy, what's this song? HL123: It's by Collective Soul. It's called The World That I Know. Came out when Mommy was in college. Evie: So does that mean it's old? HL123: ...

honglien123http://www.blogger.com/profile/04664865503830892153noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29662379.post-56197163560786563952008-07-04T08:14:00.000-07:002008-12-09T02:24:09.589-08:00

Hurray for holidays and sweet toddlers in the morning time. Happy Independence Day for my USA peeps. May your fireworks be rockin' and your bbq be smokin'. We're heading to Monterey, CA for a weekend with family and lots of food. Will try to find a second to report and blog more. **** Superha: Your Legoland pics made me want to go there again. Thanks for taking pics with R2 and Darth Vader

honglien123http://www.blogger.com/profile/04664865503830892153noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29662379.post-69414006891643975352008-07-03T11:25:00.000-07:002008-07-03T17:29:08.908-07:00

I'm sitting in class half listening to lecture and allowing work to weigh down on me. My classes start at 9am at a school an hour an a half away from home by a road that is constantly congested. I have a conference call at 8:15am each morning, that means that I have to get to school either before my conference call or close to it. That means, I have to leave home by 6:15am each morning. My

honglien123http://www.blogger.com/profile/04664865503830892153noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29662379.post-45708326671919571712008-06-08T21:38:00.000-07:002008-06-09T01:29:39.551-07:00

Oh yes...staying here, at my parent's house - the house in which Evie has been asking, for the sake of asking because she misses having her own house, "When are we going to move?" To which I have to answer, "Well honey, considering every time mommy even hints at telling grandma that mommy would like to move grandma goes into guilt trip mode and tells mommy about how this other lady that she

honglien123http://www.blogger.com/profile/04664865503830892153noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29662379.post-30065623790393207692008-05-16T00:52:00.000-07:002008-05-16T02:03:55.061-07:00

I came home today to find a handwritten note by Evie. "Dear Mom I really miss you." I got home from class after 10pm. I miss my Evie too. Unfortunately, this is becoming a typical feeling.

honglien123http://www.blogger.com/profile/04664865503830892153noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29662379.post-82638791505540033992008-04-25T10:02:00.000-07:002008-04-25T10:13:26.543-07:00

Working from home and instant messaging important messages to your coworkers while your toddler lies on your desk across your arms and decorates your face with sticky notes. Hi everybody! I can't believe it's been 20 days since I've posted. Thanks so much for the encouraging comments on the blogging fatigue. I'm finally getting around to revamping the design of this blog and restarting it.

honglien123http://www.blogger.com/profile/04664865503830892153noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29662379.post-91990687056552765082008-04-04T03:19:00.000-07:002008-04-04T03:26:15.482-07:00

JT decided today that he liked being naked. I was in class/working all day and so was not a direct witness but J messaged me that our little boy kept taking his clothes off to run around laughing like a maniac. Huh. Whatever makes him happy I guess and as long as he doesn't hop in front of the front window we're ok? **Maybe I should just post short thoughts like this. That's manageable right

honglien123http://www.blogger.com/profile/04664865503830892153noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29662379.post-83409250657500997792008-04-04T01:24:00.000-07:002008-04-04T02:13:02.499-07:00

I'm thinking of retiring or seriously revamping this blog. Not because of the lack of things to write about. I have plenty of that. Rather, I'm thinking about quitting because I'm looking back on my last several months of posts and realizing that I'm doing none of my subjects justice. I think up a lot of topics while I'm driving to and from class (1.5 hours each way) or when I'm in meetings (

honglien123http://www.blogger.com/profile/04664865503830892153noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29662379.post-85074415371797959192008-03-28T00:32:00.000-07:002008-03-28T01:05:23.345-07:00

1. Finished finals last Thursday, yay! 2. I wrote my last final paper in under two hours while working on an server related incident at work, boo! 3. JT keeps asking me, "How do you spell an?" Yeah, I don't get it either. Of course, he is the king of random these days. His favorite knock knock joke is, "Knock knock? (Who's there?) Pumpkin! (Pumpkin who?) Pumpkin in the head!" Huh? 4. Evie

honglien123http://www.blogger.com/profile/04664865503830892153noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29662379.post-42991216861347501442008-03-19T09:29:00.000-07:002008-03-19T10:07:48.928-07:00

Senator Obama's excellent speech on race 2008: http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/18/america/18obamaspeech.php President Bill Clinton's speech on the same subject in 1995: http://www.afn.org/~dks/race/clinton-e6.html Both are excellent and ask serious questions about the state of our union in terms of race. Both have very similar messages and portray a nuanced understanding of different sides

honglien123http://www.blogger.com/profile/04664865503830892153noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29662379.post-8191790136149270142008-03-19T00:50:00.000-07:002008-12-09T02:24:09.759-08:00

As seen on PostSecret. One of my secrets? I live in fear that Evie and JT will grow up thinking I sucked as a parent. My other secret? I hope I'm not spoiling them. Damned if you do, and damned if you don't. College funds can double as therapy funds I guess. (We're checking it out at a GS meeting the first week of April.)

honglien123http://www.blogger.com/profile/04664865503830892153noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29662379.post-65445605508836054352008-03-18T22:10:00.000-07:002008-03-18T22:46:33.095-07:00

Arthur C. Clarke died today. I was working on assigning some poor soul a two day engineering task when J called to tell me that bit of news specifically. I wasn't surprised. The man was old. 90 they say, though he had a vision much older and wiser; he was the messiah of science fiction and he hooked me young. I read 2001 after I fell asleep watching the movie. The book was easier and faster

honglien123http://www.blogger.com/profile/04664865503830892153noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29662379.post-23244626351739070392008-03-05T02:59:00.000-08:002008-03-05T03:19:04.211-08:00

Monday night out with Evie was a mixed bag of emotions for me even though Evie assures me she had a great time. I wasn’t able to pull myself away from work till around 6pm and was about ten minutes late picking Evie up from her after school program. I was tired and a little cranky and so I couldn’t really muster up much excitement for her when I told her we would have a night out for just the

honglien123http://www.blogger.com/profile/04664865503830892153noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29662379.post-78196576945735052682008-03-03T14:00:00.000-08:002008-03-04T09:46:31.540-08:00

In an effort to help my kids remember their heritages, I try to celebrate some of the holidays from Japan and Korea alongside Vietnamese and American holidays when I'm aware of them. I recently found out that today is Hina Matsuri or Girl's Day in Japan. Of course, we've have to celebrate, even if I have to make things up as I go. Growing up Vietnamese American, I have little experience with

honglien123http://www.blogger.com/profile/04664865503830892153noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29662379.post-31817352559024306352008-03-02T19:36:00.000-08:002008-03-03T00:10:29.818-08:00

Ramar Foods produces a flavor of ice cream that we are absolutely addicted to, buko pandan. (That's coconut and uh...pandan flavor for you; in Viet pandan is la dua for my Viet readers out there.) We're a household of lactose intolerant people but for this ice cream, we're willing to brave the tummy aches, it's that good. J and my brother D love it so much that they pretty much ate the last half

honglien123http://www.blogger.com/profile/04664865503830892153noreply@blogger.com7